Digestive System for Grade 4

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Cambridge Online Tuition Sun, Aug 07, 2022 10:49 AM UTC

The human digestive system consists of the gastrointestinal tract plus the accessory organs of digestion.

1. Practice Reading Tests - Year 3 and 4 - The Digestive System
Read all the boxed text then answer the questions.
The Digestive System
Have you ever wondered what happens to your food after you’ve chewed it in your mouth?
Your body is amazing and has a system that sorts and uses the food you eat to make sure
you get everything you need to stay healthy. It’s called your digestive system. Here’s how
it works…
Before the Stomach
Firstly, we all know that you put food in your mouth to eat it. You enjoy the taste and the texture
of the food whilst your teeth break it down into smaller pieces. Saliva is then mixed with it to
help make it softer and break it down. Also, your mouth cools it or warms it to an acceptable
temperature for you to swallow.
When the food is broken down enough, it is swallowed and goes down to your stomach via a tube
called the oesophagus (pronounced ‘a-soff-a-guss’). Muscles in the oesophagus move in waves to
move the food down to your stomach. These muscles are so good at this job that they could even
get the food to your stomach if you were standing on your head! (Don’t try this though!)
Fact File
The average adult eats about 500kg of food per year.
Your body can produce up to 1.5 litres of saliva every day.
An adult oesophagus is about 25cm long.
A camera has been invented now that is as small as a pill
(called Pillcam). It can be swallowed so it passes through your
oesophagus in order to take photos of the inside of your body.
It can take up to 55,000 pictures over the 8 hours that it’s
in there! It’s been used since 2001 to let doctors see inside
patients.
At the Stomach
When the chewed-up and softened food arrives in the stomach (which is a stretchy sack shaped like
a letter ‘J’), it is mixed with acid and enzymes (pronounced: en-zimes) that break the food down.
Once it’s broken down, it looks a bit like porridge; it is a substance called ‘chyme’. The stomach
juices also help to kill any bad bacteria that might be in the food, which could potentially make
you ill.
Page 1 of 4

2. Practice Reading Tests - Year 3 and 4 - The Digestive System
Read all the boxed text then answer the questions.
After the Stomach
The next part of the journey for your food (which doesn’t look like food anymore) is through the
small intestine. It’s here that all the goodness is taken out of the food, which goes off to different
places in the body for you to use.
When the small intestine has done its job of getting all the goodness out of the food, all the
material that is unwanted goes into the large intestine. Then, it makes its way out of the body as
poo at the end of the large intestine.
So, there you have it. Isn’t your body clever?
Name: Date:
14
Practice Reading Tests - Year 3 and 4 - The Digestive System
total marks
1. Draw three lines to each correct statement.
3 marks
Our teeth help break down food into
Saliva smaller pieces.
mixes with food to help make it softer and
Oesophagus
break it down.
Teeth
is a tube that connects to your stomach.
2. Find and copy two facts from the fact file.
2 marks
1st
2nd
total for
this page
Page 2 of 4

3. Practice Reading Tests - Year 3 and 4 - The Digestive System
3. According to the text, in what happens to the food when it arrives in the
stomach? (Tick two) 2 marks
nothing
mixed with acid and enzymes
teeth help to break it down
oesophagus
stomach juices help to kill bad bacteria
4. Put ticks to show which statements are true and which are false.
3 marks
True False
The amazing system that sorts out and uses food to keep you
healthy is called the respiratory system.
The average adult eats about 500kg of food per year.
The oesophagus is a tube that leads down to your stomach.
An adult oesophagus is about 2.5cm long.
total for
this page
Page 3 of 4

4. Practice Reading Tests - Year 3 and 4 - The Digestive System
5. Number the digestive system from 1 to 5 to show the order in which food is
digested. One has been done for you.
4 marks
Saliva is mixed with the food to help make it softer
Food is broken down into smaller pieces by your teeth 1
Muscles in the oesophagus move the food down to your stomach
Chewed up food is mixes in the stomach with acid and enzymes.
The food then goes through the small intestine and then into the large
intestine.
** END OF TEST **
total for
this page
Page 4 of 4

5. Practice Reading Tests - Year 4 - The Digestive System Answers
1 3 marks
Saliva Our teeth help break down food into smaller pieces.
Oesophagus mixes with food to help make it softer and break it down.
Teeth
is a tube that connects to your stomach.
2 2 marks
Any from the fact file:-
• The average adult eats about 500kg of food per year.
• Your body can produce up to 1.5 litres if saliva every day.
• An adult oesophagus is about 25cm long.
• A camera has been invented now that is as small as a pill.
3 2 marks
nothing
mixed with acid and enzymes √
teeth help to break it down
oesophagus
stomach juices help to kill bad bacteria √
4 True False
3 marks
The amazing system that sorts out and uses food to keep you healthy is called
√
the respiratory system.
The average adult eats about 500kg of food per year. √
The oesophagus is a tube that leads down to your stomach. √
An adult oesophagus is about 2.5cm long. √
5 4 marks
Saliva is mixed with the food to help make it softer 2
Food is broken down into smaller pieces by your teeth 1
Muscles in the oesophagus move the food down to your stomach 3
Chewed up food is mixes in the stomach with acid and enzymes. 4
The food then goes through the small intestine and then into the large intestine. 5

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